Cracking the hood on a tiny-car nation

Sometimes it feels like every other car on the road is an SUV. Not in Italy.

Let’s start with Rome. The first thing I saw when I leftFiumicino Airport was a row of Smart cars. And another, and another. We inched along to the hotel in rush-hour morning traffic, surrounded by Lilliputian-size vehicles and smartly dressed commuters expertly weaving Vespasaround them.

Florence was similar. So was Pisa. I did see bigger vehicles, including SUVs, in the cities we visited, but the average car was tiny. Venice is a car-free city, which was amazing but left me unable to assess its car-culture potential. Water taxis, gondolas and other boats were the main source of transportation there.

One thing I noticed was how many tiny vehicles belonged to parents:

One of the big American arguments for big vehicles: If you have kids, you need a lot of space. Many parents I saw driving seemed to get by without them. But the cost of gas is substantially higher there than it is here, and Smart cars can get 60 mpg. That’s a powerful incentive to reprioritize.

Safety is another reason Americans, especially parents, buy vehicles that sometimes resemble armored trucks. And frankly, I would feel safer driving a tiny car in Italy than I would on the Northway. If I got in a fender-bender, chances are the other guy would be driving a vehicle of the same size instead of ramming his front bumper through my windshield while talking on a cellphone.

Tiny cars are better at navigating narrow streets:

They also seem easier to parallel park on congested city streets.

My favorite were the ones drivers had figured out how to wedge into super-small spaces by parking them perpendicularly to the sidewalk, hoods facing into traffic. Even so, they barely stuck out, and their owners could have taught this Albany driver a thing or two.

Here’s an oldie but goodie:

One of Rome’s other major forms of transportation:

One of the things I love about traveling is getting to see the world from a different point of view. We don’t live in a nation of tiny, highly fuel-efficient vehicles. But others do, and we could.